What Group E looks like
Group E isn’t the easiest, but Belgium should come out on top. Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine will join them. More likely than not, the Red Devils and the Ukrainians will be the two teams who will progress to the Round of 16. There are also third-place sides who could move on, so the other two have a chance as well.
Belgium
Belgium may not be a favorite at Euro 2024 with an aging core, but they can’t be slept on. Domenico Tedesco’s men have looked very good since failing to get out of their group at the 2022 World Cup, not losing once over a span of 13 matches. In recent friendlies against Montenegro and Luxembourg, the Red Devils bagged five goals and didn’t concede once.
Perhaps Belgium hasn’t played a lot of different countries since Qatar, but they did settle for a 2-2 stalemate with England and also beat Germany last year. Tedesco has a lot of well-known players at his disposal including Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Jeremy Doku, Thomas Meunier, and Leandro Trossard. As you can see, a lot of quality from the Premier League. When healthy, De Bruyne is one of the best midfielders in the world while his Man City teammate Doku proved his worth in 2023-24 at the Etihad.
Belgium has enjoyed some success at the European Championships, making the quarterfinals in 2020 and 2016. That is very much a possibility again. Anything is possible if the core of this group can produce the goods. The Belgians are a heavy -210 favorite at Bodog.
Slovakia
The Slovakians aren’t exactly a team you see too often in major tournaments. They haven’t made the World Cup since 2010 and as previously mentioned, were knocked out early at Euro 2020. They did make the Round of 16 at Euro 2016 however and enter this event with back-to-back 4-0 victories over Wales and San Marino. That will give Slovakia a bit of confidence ahead of Monday’s clash.
They’ve also tasted defeat just once in their previous seven games and showed well in qualifying for Euro 2024, finishing as runners-up in their group behind Portugal, one of the favorites to win it all. Slovakia has never beaten Belgium, losing once and settling for a pair of draws. But anything is possible.
The most familiar names to fans in this Slovakia squad will be Milan Skriniar and Martin Dubrovka, but there’s also some other intriguing young players who could do well. That includes Tomas Suslov and Robert Bozenik. The latter is more than capable of producing in front of goal. It will be interesting to see if he can, starting with Monday. Slovakia is a heavy underdog to beat Belgium at soccer betting sites.
